CIRCUS PERFORMANCE BY WINNERS AT MONTE CARLO, JANUARY, 2001 BY ALBERT F. HOUSE

The annual circus festival at Monte Carlo in Monaco began on January 18 with a full schedule of performances. Two different performances, A and B, are given on successive days, then repeated. The final competitive performance was on Tuesday, January 25 at 3 P.M. A day off was given to allow the judges to sort out the various winners. On January 25, in the evening, a gala performance was given, along with the various top prizes. The president of the judges was Prince Ranier, who was at all the performances as well as the vice president, Princess Stephanie. This year one of the judges was Tim Holst from the Ringling show. Other judges were from Russia, China, France, Italy and Belgium.

The finale performance opened with a group of 10 tigers trained by Daniel Raffo, known to many American audiences as he formerly appeared on RBBB.. The act was a fast moving one, with much flash and unusual tricks. His prize was the Prix Special du Great Moscow State Circus.

Another American, versatile juggler Shirley Dean, daughter of well-known comedy trampoline/diving act Don Martinez, also performed. She won the Prix Louis Merlin.

A third act Americans are familiar with is the 3-person high wire act of the Carillos. They won a Silver Clown.

The top prizes, the Gold and Silver, were abundantly awarded.

Gold prize winners were Alexis Gruss with his horses and La Troupe de Shanghai who did a combination risley/teeterboard act. Both were excellent and deserved to win the prizes.

The Silver Clown winners are four in number.

They include Les Manduccas, and adagio act that was very funny, Les Peres Brothers a hand balancing act that was very stylish, Fumagali, a humorist who is eccentric in his clown character and who has a comedy tumbling act as well, and Les Carillos, who recently were on RBBB. All were highly polished and shown to their best.

Clowning this year was not in the hands of the traditional European clown, as many would suspect. The comedy was done by two men billed as
eccentrics, that is, they did funny things with the audience or were novel in their entertaining.

The first eccentric was Michel Lauziere from Canada. He played different melodies familiar to the audience by blowing differently tuned horns pinned to a jumpsuit covering his body. He did everything from classical music to children’s melodies. He also put himself into a big balloon and bounced around the ring while inside the balloon. This was a "first time ever" trick for me. It is novel to say the least.

The second eccentric was Gianni Huesca known as Fumagali, an Italian. He wandered in the audience and created havoc with the people. His biggest upset was the messing of the finely coifed hair of some society woman who eventually accepted his actions good naturally.

The festival is the grand daddy of all the festivals, and deserves credit for bringing together some of the finest circus acts in the world today. We
Americans saw some excellent acts from North Korea, acts that will never be in the USA until diplomatic relations thaw. That may be in the near future. This will give the Americans something to look forward to seeing.